1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to handheld devices, and in particular, to systems and methods for automatically sharing user-relevant information between handheld devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and combination phone/computer devices.
2. Related Art
Handheld devices, in particular PDAs, are used widely to facilitate users in organizing business and personal appointments, contacts, to-do list items, memos, expense reports, etc. Recent palm-size PDAs are also equipped with document readers and mini-web browsers to display additional reading material on the PDAs. The document readers may, for example, be useful for reading books and mails. Mini-web browsers allow users of the PDAs with online connection capability to roam the Internet and extract information from the Internet. Other popular handheld devices include small personal organizers, palm-size computers, and combination phone/computer devices. Many of the handheld devices also have the ability to synchronize with a desktop computer, utilizing either a synchronizer connected to the desktop computer or some sort of wireless protocol.
Currently, most handheld devices, in particular PDAs, support a xe2x80x9cbeamingxe2x80x9d utility, which allows for quick, easy, and wireless sharing of selected items between handheld devices in close proximity. Beaming is usually performed between two parties, a sender and a recipient. Typically, the sender would have an assortment of items on his/her PDA, one or some of which are of interest to the recipient. Some examples of the popular items are offline web pages, e-books, game applications, system applications, and utility applications. Common data, such as contacts, appointments, mail, to-do list items, memos and notes, are also found in most PDAs.
To make the sharing work using conventional sharing technology, the sender usually acts as the initiator and describes the items on his/her PDA to the recipient. The recipient may then express an interest in one or some of the items. The recipient can also act as the initiator and expresses his/her interest in certain items by inquiring to the sender whether the sender has the item(s) on the sender""s PDA. Upon establishing that a particular item owned by the sender is of interest to the recipient, and assuming that the sender does not object to the transfer of the item, the sender proceeds to xe2x80x9cbeamxe2x80x9d the item of interest to the recipient from his/her PDA. At this point, the recipient makes sure that his/her PDA is in the xe2x80x9cbeam receivingxe2x80x9d mode. Upon receiving the beamed item(s), the recipient""s PDA accepts it and allocates it to the appropriate location on the PDA.
In conventional sharing technology, it is necessary for users of the handheld devices to personally keep track of all the information and items they carry on their handheld devices because they could potentially be senders who beam items to recipients. Due to recent technology advances, available memory of a handheld device has increased. More and more items are being stored on the handheld devices for offline access. This makes it difficult for users to remember all the items they carry on their handheld devices. A sender not only needs to remember to mention items or offer them to others to whom the items may be relevant, but the sender also needs to remember that he/she has certain items relevant to a particular person when asked by the particular person. Although a recipient could inquire and personally ask a sender a question as to whether he/she has a particular item or type of item, the conventional beaming technology and the limited function of the present software applications on the handheld devices do not allow the recipient to actually initiate the sharing of information between the recipient and the sender through a beaming process. Moreover, a sender may not be aware of all the interests of a recipient, even though the sender has information and/or an item pertaining to a person with such interests and would have offered the information and/or item to the recipient if the sender had been aware of the interests of the recipient.
Invariably, using the conventional technology, before beaming is to start, there is always the need for either a sender to personally mention or offer an item to a recipient, or a recipient to personally ask a sender for an item. There is no automatic way of sharing information that is relevant to the recipient from a handheld device. Therefore, there is a need for a system and method that allows users of handheld devices to automatically share user-relevant information between handheld devices. The system and method should take into consideration the limited processing power of the handheld devices, the limited nature of the xe2x80x9cbeamingxe2x80x9d protocol, and the limited controllability of the handheld devices due to the limited customization of native software applications.